Global Financial Crisis – Philippines

MANILA, Philippines – Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ralph Recto is optimistic that dollar remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and an improvement in the performance of the export industry would help the country achieve the government’s latest economic growth projection for 2009.

The Philippine economy is expected to contract this year because of weak remittance inflows and export earnings despite the increase in government spending and lower interest rates, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Wednesday.

MANILA, Philippines – Many children in the Philippines, especially in Mindanao, go to school hungry, according to the United Nations.

MANILA, Philippines – The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority has earmarked P100 million to “retool” workers in the semiconductor and electronics sectors, in an effort to equip them with new skills that they can tap when the industry picks up.

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines – Worldwide precision instruments manufacturer Moog Controls, a locator along the Export Processing Zone in Loakan here, has cut its workforce by 30 percent.

MANILA, Philippines – There will be no additional retrenchment in the electronics industry as local players announced they are heading towards recovery.

MANILA, Philippines – Despite suffering a negative 8 percent industry growth in 2008, the country’s semiconductor and electronics manufacturing industry is expecting a slow recovery by the turn of this year.

About P80 billion worth of funds lay idle in the banks in the first quarter of 2009, as news of global economic recession forced families of migrant Filipino workers to save their money instead of spend them, resulting in a dismal 0.4-percent growth in gross domestic product during the period.

Sales growth of pharmaceutical products in the country would slow down this year due to the economic downturn and expiring patents, the local pharmaceutical industry said.

BAGUIO: US high-tech components producer Moog Inc. will cut staff at its Philippines unit by almost 30 percent as it is hit by the global economic downturn, the local Labor office reported Tuesday.

VARIOUS commodity manufacturers, including cement-makers, flour millers and bakers’ groups, trooped to the Tariff Commission last Friday, seeking relief amid the economic slowdown.

MANILA, Philippines – The total net earnings of companies listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) fell 29.4 percent last year to P198.91 billion, from P281.54 billion, in 2007, due to the ill effects of the global financial turmoil.

MANILA, Philippines—The global economic downturn, which recently pulled the Philippines down to its slowest growth in a decade, will result in the country’s failure to meet its poverty-reduction goal by 2010 and is expected to increase the number of poor Filipinos.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines may slip into a recession this year as economic growth – as measured by the gross domestic product (GDP) – inched up a mere 0.4 percent in the first quarter of the year compared to the same period in 2008, the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) reported yesterday.

The country is three months away from a technical recession after the economy shrank by 2.3 percent in the first quarter compared with the final three months of last year due mainly to the government’s failure to deliver a massive pump-priming commitment.

Majority of local business process outsourcing (BPO) industry leaders said the global financial crisis had minimal impact on their operations, preliminary results of a recent survey showed.

MANILA, Philippines—(UPDATE) Imports in March fell from a year earlier at a record pace, hit by weak demand for electronics parts largely used in export products, deflating optimism that global demand may be picking up.

Business sentiment in the Philippines improved, apparently buoyed by the so-called green shoots in the US, suggesting recovery from the global financial turmoil, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilinas reported on Thursday.

MANILA, Philippines – Even if the global recession is to extend longer than expected, Standard & Poor’s (S&P) said the Philippines would fare relatively well although the impact on the country’s debt profile could trigger a credit ratings downgrade.

A high official of the National Economic and Development Authority certainly thinks a case can be made for saying so. Key indicators suggest that “the worst seems over … for the Philippine economy,” said NEDA Deputy Director General Rolando Tungpalan the other day.

NEDA: Global recovery will take time   The global crisis is not over, but the worst is over for the Philippine economy,” a senior economic official said on Wednesday.

Govt sees end of global crisis for Philippines   The government admitted that unemployment figures were growing, with its data showing that jobless Filipinos numbered about 14 million in the first three months of 2009.

MANILA, Philippines—The semiconductor industry may be on its way to recovery, as capacity utilization of manufacturing plants worldwide have started to pick up this quarter.

The government has parked $3.68 billion equivalent to a tenth of the country’s total foreign exchange reserves as contribution to the $120-billion so-called Asian Monetary Fund (AMF).

MANILA, Philippines – The number of displaced workers in the Philippines as a result of the global financial crisis went down in April, indicating that the country is slowly recovering from the difficult economic tide, National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) director for policy and planning Dennis Arroyo said yesterday.

Palace creates employment task force President Gloria Arroyo created the Presidential Task Force on Emergency Employment to thwart the effects of the global economic crisis in the country’s economy.

MANILA, Philippines—The Philippines and the rest of Asia may reel longer than expected from anemic exports as demand from the United States and other advanced economies may not immediately respond to pump-priming initiatives, the International Monetary Fund said.

MANILA, Philippines—(UPDATE 2) Microsoft Philippines finally revealed that their Philippine operations would be among those affected by the recent global job cuts announced by the software giant.

CEBU CITY – Labor Secretary Marianito Roque said unemployment in the country was slowly starting to ease as companies have started to hire workers.

MANILA, Philippines – Even the combination of monetary easing and fiscal stimulus would not be enough to fully offset the impact of a slowing global demand and declining remittances, international ratings agency Standard & Poor’s Rating said yesterday.